Within the inky sky that spans a viewing angle of nearly 180º lies a rare planetary occurrence: a conjunction of five planets visible from earth.

Timing was everything, from the seasonal timing of the 3-4 week period during which this rare alignment took place; to the photographic timing, searching for a glimpse of Mercury faintly showing above the horizon before the encroachment of daylight became too strong. In February, the cloudless conditions required for a clear sky view meant the ground conditions were pretty chilly, too!

Visibility of Mercury was the defining element from a photographic perspective. A dark-sky site would be irrelevant, given the imminence of sunrise, whilst a hilltop vantage point ensured the lower planets couldn't be concealed behind a foreground element. In fact, the yellowy glow of the city brought further balance to the foreground, with its illumination and colour.

I opted for a 50mm lens attached to my Sony A7s, mounted vertically on the tripod. The capture phase took two rows of 14 frames to record optimum amounts of sky & foreground. With so many frames to record per single attempt there was a very real chance of the ambient light changing from start to finish. To counter that, I dialled in an ISO sensitivity of 400 and a shutter speed of 4 seconds per frame, with the short exposures having the further benefit of eliminating any trails from the stars & planets.

With so much source data the final image is huge, obviously. At 100% zoom you can even make out two of Jupiter's moons! If my calculations are right it should print at up to 10ft long- worth bearing in mind if you're looking to fill a wide wall space.

Labelled version of the image
When I got home from shooting, I discovered my editing monitor had died. As the pertinence of the image faded, it took me until now to approach the edit on a new screen. It was only when turning to the internet to cross reference my labelling of the features against other images/ reports of the conjunction that I discovered, well, not very much. There seem to be very few other images of the five-planet conjunction, making this an especially unusual image. That makes it all the more gratifying that it was achieved on my first try. If only I could enjoy similar success with capturing aurora at these southern latitudes!